Tomas O. cuts allowances of city’s barangay workers

Mayor Tomas Osmeña (inset) has cut City Hall’s subsidies to the barangay workers citing their poor performance as one of the bases for his move. Above, Councilor Philip Zafra, Association of Barangay Councils Cebu City president (left), and Councilor Pastor “Jun” Alcover (right), questioned Osmena’s move during the City Council session yesterday.
CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA

POOR PERFORMANCE CITED

Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña has ordered the suspension of the incentives given by City Hall to the barangay workers of all the 80 villages in the city.

Osmeña cited the poor performance of the barangay workers as one of the reason for stopping the City Hall incentives especially in the submission of their accomplishment reports.

He said he is not satisfied with their accomplishments, and does not want them having the incentives.

“Effectively immediately, all the allowances of the tanods are cut off including the Lupon, the barangay health worker and etcetera,” he said.

Financial assistance

Cebu City Hall gives a financial assistance of P5,000 to each of the 500 barangay health workers in the city’s 80 barangays. On the other hand, barangay tanods and members of the Lupong Tagapamayapa, get P4,000 each.

There are 20 tanods in each barangay and 10 to 20 members of the lupong tagapamayapa.

Osmeña said he would exercise all his legal options to put an end to their opposition to the government.

He said the giving of subsidy is discretionary on the part of the mayor.

“They think it is obligatory? It is not. The others don’t even give allowances,” he said.

He said only the garbage loaders are excluded in the cancellation of allowances.

Should the workers protest his decision, he said he would also protest their performance.

Osmeña has earlier cut the allowances of tanods in Barangay Mambaling because of their failure to clear the sidewalks of B. Rodriguez St. of vendors while in the case of Sambag I, the tanods did not perform well in the war against illegal drugs in the barangay.

Waste money

The mayor earlier announced he does not want to waste the city’s money.

“Dili ko ganahan nga (ma)usik ang kwarta. They think they are entitled to it unya walay performance? (I don’t want to waste money. They think they are entitled to it but they do not perform?),” Osmeña said.

Osmeña said he does not mind giving allowances as long as they earn it.

“I am just being transparent that is why I am doing this. They are not earning it,” he said.

The mayor, however, said there is a possibility for him to restore the subsidies.

Affect brgy operations

Association of Barangay Councils (ABC) Cebu City president Philip Zafra lamented the mayor’s decision because it might hamper the barangay operations.

“That’s unfair. Our barangay workers contribute a lot in our barangays. They have been offering their services to the people for a long time already,” he said.

Zafra explained that the city’s counterpart cash incentive is a huge help to the barangay workers since they only get minimal allowance from the barangay as it would also depend on each barangay’s size and income.

“It is really unfortunate that the mayor could not see usefulness and the contributions of the barangay workers to the city,” he said.

Partisan politics

He asked the mayor not to make the barangay workers victims of partisan politics.

He added that the mayor should make an effort to verify reports he receives that these barangay workers are not doing their jobs in order to be fair to them.

He also said the mayor may not be getting factual information from those who report to him.

Concern raised

During yesterday’s Cebu City Council session, Councilor Pastor Alcover Jr., also raised the concern about the barangay workers.

He said the city should not subject the workers to meticulous submissions of weekly accomplishment reports.

During the session, Zafra said that he would be meeting with Garry Lao, head of the Cebu City Office for Substance Abuse Prevention (Cosap) to properly discuss what reports are needed to be done by the workers in order to make sure that they are able to properly comply.